"Hamlet 2? Doesn’t everybody die at the end of the first one?"

[2muchexposition]

I gave today [er, yesterday—my internet issues are apparently more pervasive than I had hoped] over to food and friends, starting with brunch in Greenpoint with lowellboyslash et al, then frantic preparation for a dinner party I was throwing in the evening, a joke housewarming for my friend James. This may strike you as odd if you recall that musetoself, ecmyers, and I moved into our apartment in Alphabet City in September 2006. But we never got around to having a housewarming party due to the insanity surrounding our walls, and James has insisted on calling the place "new" until we did, so I figured the best way to make him stop was to hold a small dinner party for him, the roommates, their SOs, and julianyap. A trio of Japanese-esque dishes later and I think we can safely call our apartment warmed, with the added benefit of giving us our first chance to try out the living-room-plus-dining-table layout. The lack of a dinner party venue has been the biggest gap in my social puzzle, and—because I am secretly an old-fashioned housewife—I am absurdly excited about finally having the means to fill it.

[Edited 08-04-28 to fix our move-in date.]